A number of certification boards and some states, such as California, have procedures and regulations that must be followed for a food ingredient or food product to be labeled as “organic”. One such board is the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The NOSB prohibits organic growers from using chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers on their land for at least three years. NOSB standards currently allow up to 5 percent of the ingredients in nutritional products labeled “organic” to be non-organic, provided those ingredients are not widely available in organic form or on the USDA list of prohibited materials. The growing popularity of organic foods has reached a national level as well. For example, the United Stated Department of Agriculture's final national organic rule became effective on Apr. 21, 2001. There must be compliance with this law by Oct. 21, 2002.
The consuming public is aware that organic foods reduce the health risks associated with consuming foods that are tainted with chemical solvents, pesticides, herbicides, and the like. While adults can carefully choose their source of nutrition, infants, toddlers and children are forced to consume liquid formulas that are not organic. One aspect of the present invention is directed to an infant formula and a nutritional beverage for toddlers and children that is greater than 95% organic. The invention is also directed to a “non-dairy” formulation based on organic rice protein concentrate as the sole source of protein. The invention is also directed to a method to prepare such nutritional beverages.
Conventional infant formulas are derived, to a large extent, from cow's milk. After being diluted, the cow's milk may be enriched with whey proteins, diverse carbohydrates such as lactose, dextrin, sucrose, maltose and starches, different mixtures of vegetable and animal fats, and fortified with vitamins and minerals. These components are present in suitable amounts to meet the requirements of low birth weight newborns or term healthy infants as a sole source of nutrition during the first and second semesters of life.
Sometimes, infant formulas also contain isolated milk proteins, isolated vegetable proteins or protein hydrolyzates, from diverse sources such as casein, lactalbumin, soy and meat. Also, these infant formulas have one or more carbohydrates (sucrose, dextrin, maltose and starch), mixtures of diverse kinds of fats, minerals and vitamins, to meet not only the healthy newborns' nutritional requirements, but also of infants and children with clinical symptoms of lactose intolerance, protein intolerance and, in general, with diverse malabsorption-malnutrition syndromes.
Rice protein, which has been a part of the human diet for over 10,000 years, is a non-animal source of nutrition, produces no known allergic reactions, no flatulence factor, and is a pleasant tasting alternative to diary and soy sources of protein. Diary proteins are animal based and can be difficult to digest. Soy proteins can also be difficult to digest and can have an undesirable beany, astringent flavor.
The typical composition of organic rice protein concentrate is approximately 5.8% fat; 5.3% carbohydrate (of which 2.6% is dietary fiber, 0% sugars and 2.7% other carbohydrates); 84.4% protein; 5% moisture; 2% ash.
Rice protein is a complete protein in that it contains all of the nine essential amino acids as well as all of the other non-essential amino acids. The protein efficiency ratio (PER) is the measure of the actual protein available for the body to use. This PER is related to the percentage of the protein digested by the body. The approximate PER of rice protein is 2.75.
The European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (ESPGAN), the American Academy of Pediatric (AAP), the Codex Alimentarius Mundi, and the European Community Council, among other organizations, have set forth general guidelines for the composition of infant formulas.
As used herein, the term “infant formula” is intended to refer to the well established understanding as defined in the United States Infant Formula Act, (106 and 107 C.F.R.). The term “organic”is intended to refer to a food that complies with the Federal Organic Foods Production Act (1990) or the California Organic Foods Act of 1990 or those certified by the National Organic Standards Board.
Nutritional products, other than infant formulas, such as those currently used in hospitals, are based on the utilization of diverse protein sources (caseins, sodium and calcium caseinates, isolated milk and soy proteins, protein hydrolyzates and/or crystalline amino acids), mixtures of vegetable and animal fats, carbohydrates (basically glucose polymers), vitamins and minerals to meet, at least, the dietary intakes recommended for healthy individuals (Committee on Dietary Allowances, Food and Nutrition Board, Nat. Acad. Sci., 9th Ed, 1980).
Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) is found in many patients admitted to hospitals. This happens not only in developing countries, but also in those with a high socioeconomic level. Proper nutritional support for such patients, while not a primary mode of treatment is, nevertheless, an important factor for therapy and recovery. It is, therefore important to administer a nutritionally balanced organic diet free of contaminates such as pesticides and herbicides, adequate to meet the needs of the patient. This is especially true for those patients where conventional feeding is contra-indicated (gastroenterological patients) or is insufficient (hypercatabolic patients). Further, these patients are at greater risk for developing complications that are associated with foods contaminated with pesticides, herbicides and chemical solvents.